7 October 2011

Civic Reception for Chinese delegation

Photo opportunity: 11am on Monday, 10th October at City Chambers. Lord Provost John Letford will host a Civic Reception for visiting delegates from Tianjin Medical University.

A group of visiting academics and officials from Tianjin, China, will have their links with the University of Dundee celebrated on Monday when a Civic Reception is held in their honour.

Lord Provost John Letford will welcome the visitors to Dundee when he holds the event for them and their Dundee hosts at City Chambers from 11am. The Tianjin delegation will also be given an introduction to the University and a tour of the Clinical Research Centre at Ninewells Hospital during their visit.

Xinyu Zhang, a student from Tianjin who is currently undertaking a Masters of Public Health at Dundee, will also be part of the group.

Dr Brendan Barker, from the University of Dundee, hailed the importance of the visit saying, 'the visit demonstrates the growing strength of our partnership with Tianjin - the sixth-largest city in China. We already welcome large numbers of students from Tianjin each year, and we have begun to develop exciting research partnerships that will bring new jobs to Dundee.'

The relationship between Dundee and Tianjin goes back many years and a number of visits in both directions have taken place. A Memorandum of Understanding sees Dundee accept students from a number of universities in Tianjin to study engineering and physical sciences. A joint agreement has also been signed with Tianjin Medical University (TMU) for research collaboration especially in medical science and technology and cancer research.

Earlier this year, a Dundee delegation spent a week in Tianjin meeting various research groups while, in June, Professor Pete Downes, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dundee, travelled to Tianjin where he was guest of honour at TMU’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

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